This is a lovely Holiday's theme I find, as this time of the year is also about giving to people who are less fortunate (I mean, it's always the time to give to the people who are less fortunate, no? But I guess it's nice to remind ourselves around Christmas).
So let's talk about Charities!
In terms of 'bigger' national charities, I give regularly to SWARM, which is the acronym for Sex Workers Advocacy and Resistance Movement. As its name indicates, it's a collective dedicated to supporting sex workers in the UK. It's not been really long since I started doing activities related to sex work (yes, fetish/erotic modeling is SW!), but it's always been important for me to support SWers rights. Especially in a time like this one, when a lot of SWers are unable to do their usual job and receive any form of income.
There are also a LOT of things happening at the moment on different platforms (Instagram, etc...) that SWers usually use for building their communities and their following, which are aiming at erasing SWers.
Did you know? Yesterday was international day against violence against Sex Workers. In many countries, since SW is still considered criminal, there are NO laws that will protect SWers. That means that basically in a job that is already dangerous (because people can treat them like shit), you cannot call the authorities if you have been facing violence, in fear of facing more abuse from the authorities. Which, let's be honest isn't great. So when you are able to, support support.
It's already quite nice to be present here, on a website where the people who see the content pay for it and help support the platform and the models on it. So thanks for that.
Another of my regular gives goes to Beat Eating Disorders.
This one again is a personal one. I had a deep dive into anorexia when I was in my BA, and I was able to get treatment and therapy thanks to a charity like Beat. So many young (from age 6-7) people suffer from eating disorders, and so many carry these through the years. Too many people die from eating disorders from the entire spectrum and there is never enough education and understanding of these illnesses. It's too often that young people are even encouraged to develop disordered patterns of eating, which, in many cases, can end up in eating disorders. So that's why I think it's important to educate people more about these illnesses or just about how to support relatives with eating disorders because they are lonely diseases.
These are just my main ones, and I think probably the most relevant here. But when I'm not broke, I often try to participate at my local food bank (if you ever give food to the collection, think about bringing instant coffee, or cans of fish). People who volunteer there are always super nice and it's actually quite fun!
So what about you? Do you give to charities if you can? Which ones?
Thanks for reading me! ♥
@rambo @missy @penny